Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-04-07
Old Times.

been destroyed by fire. / remember
very we'll; it was the last winter 1 kept
batch. hall" at the sawmill on Brew.
er's Creek. In the fall my father and
oldest brother had gone back to the old
home in the east-iather with the in.
tention of selling the old home and my
brother to marry ''the girl he left be-
hind" They expected to have been
back home by Christmas, at farthest,
but as we cannot always tell what " ill
happen to us we are often disappointed
| in our calculations. During the month
of November the cold came down from
the north and closed up all the rivers
with ice, which, Of course, prevented
| further travel for the winter-as there
were no railroads west of Pittsburgh,
all travel was hy boat-so they had to
remain until the next March. After
father had gone, according to his in
structions, and young man whom
we had hired, took some teams and
went down to the sawmill to cut and
haul logs to saw, for we were to build
two houses the next summer. We
filled the yard with logs, ready for
saving when the winter rains set in so
we could run the mill, but instead of
rain it showed most Of the time until
February, and was one of the coldest
winters ever knew in this climate.
In January we moved our traps (house-
hold goods, etc. )down to our cabin at the
mill and began housekeeping. l was
to be the old woman and my partner
to keep the mill going while l did the
housework; for he said when We had
our things all fixed, "Now, we have
got to live here until next spring. SO
let US live like white folks. Now you
may have two hours to get breakfast
and DO up the work, two hours for din
ner, and two hours for supper each
day, and I'll run the MILL" Just think.
six hours a day TO cook and do the
housework for two of us. "And now
old woman, shall expect you to have
things up In good shape" And did
disappoint him? No; for he told the
girls of the neigh borhood he lived the
best lie had ever done in his life. And
didn't VIZ? We lived on the fat of the
land, for we had flour TOR bread. buck
wheat for battercakes, and plenty of
honey 10 put on them, cornmeal, all
kinds of vegetables, fruits, dried and
green, sugar, coffee, all kinds of salt
meats, beans, and oil the game we
were Il mind to kill. We both had our
rifles, and were good hunters, so never
allowed our meat house to get empty.
Ii we wanted any kind of fresh dish
he would say, "Old woman, I'd like
some venison or turkey, or some fried
squirrel: after you get the housework
done you take Old Betsey' THAT was
the name of my gum and go and kill
something to eat" and / was always q
most dutiful old girl when it came to
hunting or fishing, nor did I fail to get
his game. When the water was too
low or it was too cold, or too hot or toe
else, we would both. take our
guns and start out on a tramp, always
on strife as to who would kill the
most or shoot the closest. / remember |
one cold spell we had about the last of
February Or first of March, about the |
time the world was to be burned up, !
We went TO one of our neig bors, who |
was the father of three handsome, |
robust, rosy-cheeked girls. We reach
ed there just before night, and had
hardly seated ourselves before the fire |
than one of the boys came in and said |
that there was flock os old gobblers
and started for them. / went one way
ard my partner the other, SO as to get
them somewhat between US and both
fire at the same time, if we could get
he chance. Sure enough, we each
killed one and they were regular old
just rolling fat. When
we took them to the house and gave
them TO the old man, he seemed very
much pleased and said, "You stay with
as tonight" (Which we intended doing
he invited us or not. He was
A real old crank; hardly any one could
get along with him, he was such
,rabbed old fellow. So we accepted
lis invitation. That night he had
great deal to say about the world being
up; it seemed to disturb him
very much. The bed the old fellow
slept in was near the outside door. In
he morning I got up to build the fires
the legs were standing outside the
icor--and as opened it, a gust of wind
blew in and filled his face with snow,
or it was just pouring down. He
shouted, "Shut the door! Talk about
he world burning up, it can't burr /:
With all this snow. / believe it will
re. za up." The old fellow said he was {
going to lie right there and die; he
wasn't going get up any more: twas :
ime they were planting corn and here
twas just showing. Hum! you folks
an do as please, but I won't get up '
my more, SO! Il
Well, after a while I had a good !
caring fire going, and the girls had .
freak fast cooking in an adjoining room
nd ole of.those old gobblers smelled {
,retty good as he was roasting. When |
.reakfast was most ready could see
he old gentleman raise his head up 6
title and suiff. AT last he said, well, I